Sensationalism

Sensationalism…. this word has been hitting me in the head like a pendulum , back & forth, now does that mean I have to bore you with my thoughts? Well, yes…it seems that is what I have been doing for awhile now. Ok, where do I start..??

Let’s define -Sensationalism is a type of editorial bias in mass media in which events and topics in news stories and pieces are over-hyped to increase viewership or readership numbers. (according to en.m.wikipedia)

Now what about sensationalism has been hitting me over and over? Well to be up-front and rather preachy, here goes. I have been doing what I can to promote and attend, Christian/Catholic movies, Christian concerts and listen to Christian radio, with the desire to be a voice….for lifting our moral standards. That our children not have to be feed with what typical society wants but have a choice for a higher moral standard of entertainment. I thought I was doing a good thing, however, the last two Christian films I went to were right on the border; there were several sexual innuendos, granted they were done by the married couples…however they need not have been in there at all. They neither added nor were needed in anyway to bring home the point of the movies. These were simply “sell-outs”. No different from the normal society movies rated PG or PG-13. Ok, so what, right? Should I really let it get to me? It was “intimate” moments by two married people and they were just probably trying to show a happily married couple…yeah, ok, but it was not necessary. Ok, I get it, if the audience you are trying to get is married couples but not children. We have come to far out as a society of what is “normal” for our children to watch and not necessarily a good thing.

My biggest problem with the whole thing is …WE HAVE BEEN THERE, DONE THAT, AND HAVE ACTUALLY SEEN THE RESULTS OF THIS EXPERIMENT….WHY ARE WE DOING IT AGAIN. The reason there is a market for Christian films is because we started to make concessions along time ago with just doing a little of this or a little of that, and before we knew it, it was ok to have have naked men, or women showing as much of their body as the could before being rated R or above. And the ratings themselves have been changed to allow for what society is now used to. THIS IS WRONG!! I WANT TO BE ABLE TO TAKE MY CHILDREN TO A FAMILY MOVIE AND NOT HAVE TO COVER THEIR EYES OR HAVE TO EXPLAIN WHAT THEY SAW WAS OK SINCE….OR PREACH WHY IT WAS WRONG. I am not a preacher nor do I want to be one. I just want to go enjoy a clean family movie with my family and there is no shame in that.

So if Christian films are selling-out, maybe thinking well if we can just get them in and they can see the truth in the film, maybe we can change one person…well maybe but this experiment of getting people in the seats and watering down the Word so that they can fell comfortable before we really tell them the truth has not faired well in the Catholic community. Once the reality of what the Word really means has been shown to those who were made to feel comfortable, they became uncomfortable and left the Catholic Church in droves. I hope we are not repeating our errs simply because we are looking at numbers.

Lord, help us, for we want to bring many to you. Sometimes are wants exceed our reasoning skills and we are short sighted. May we learn to bring all things to You for your approval before our human minds convince us otherwise. Bless the many who are trying to bring home Your sheep.